CHEM-E2200: Polymer blends and composites

Fibre architecture and principles of

reinforcement

Mark Hughes
14th September 2020
Outline

• Fibre ‘architecture’
• Volume fraction and the rule of mixtures
• Principle of load sharing and reinforcement
• Long or short? The effect of reinforcement geometry
on elastic stress transfer and reinforcement
processes
Reinforcement architecture
(‘fibre architecture’ or
microstructure)
Microstructure: the reinforcement architecture

The term reinforcement (fibre) architecture includes:

• The geometry of the reinforcement (aspect ratio,
morphology)
• The volume fraction of the reinforcement
• The orientation of the reinforcement with respect to
applied loads
• The packing arrangement of the reinforcement (also
related to the orientation) – woven, non-woven textiles,
unidirectional fabrics
Geometry, orientation, packing arrangement and
volume fraction are all inter-dependent
Geometry of ‘reinforcement’
• Fibre, particle or plate
• Scale: micrometre,
nanometre
• Continuous or
discontinuous
• ‘Short’ or ‘long’ fibre
• Aspect ratio of fibrous
reinforcement: ratio of
length to diameter
(assuming reinforcement
has a circular cross-section.
Not always the case!) E-glass fibre
(Source: Owens Corning Composite Materials LLC)
 Volume fraction
Vf = Vfibre/Vcomposite
Vf = fibre volume fraction
Vfibre = volume of fibre in composite
Vcomposite = volume of composite

• One of the most important concepts in composite science

• The volume fraction of the reinforcement, frequently referred to
as the “fibre volume fraction”, strongly affects many composite
properties
• Varies from a “few” per cent (<10%) to up to around 70% (above
this value, the reinforcement will be in contact and so the matrix
cannot completely surround the reinforcement)
Packing arrangement and volume fraction

(Source: de Morais et al, 2003)

(Source: Hull and Clyne 1992)
Circular cross-sectional fibres:
- Upper limit of volume faction when fibres just touch (we assume a continuous matrix)
- Square or hexagonal array
- Theoretical upper limit: 78,5% (square); 90,7% (hexagonal)
- Unlikely in real-life applications (60% upper limit?)
- BUT, this is for UD composites: is this what is required?
Effect of fibre architecture on volume fraction
• 3-D volumes do not pack to high volume fractions
• To obtain high volume fractions, organised packing
arrangements are needed

Computer model consisting of 150 fibres with an aspect ratio of 37. Volume
fraction 8% (Source: ETH Zurich:
http://www.mat.ethz.ch/about_us/material_world/success_stories/numerical_si
mulation)
Microstructures of natural and synthetic
composites
Wood fibre

Manmade laminates
Laminate examples
Fibre architecture - orientation

Volume fraction and mechanical properties increase.

1. Unidirectional – UD (all fibres are aligned with the same
orientation)

BUT so does the degree of anisotropy

2. Cross-ply laminates (similar to plywood) where alternate
UD plies are perpendicular to each other
3. Multi-directional laminate structures where alternate plies
are at different orientation (e.g. at 45o to the adjacent ply)
4. Bi-directional woven structures (many different weave
types)
5. Planar random chopped strand mat – C.S.M. (almost a
random orientation of fibre in one plane (similar to paper)
6. 3-D random arrangement

• 1-4 long fibre; 5 ‘long’ short fibre; 6 short fibre randomly

oriented
Unidirectional
Cross-/multi-ply

CLT:
cross-
laminated
timber
Woven-structures

• ‘Resin rich’ pockets in between

weave
• Non-optimal arrangement due to
‘crimp’ in textile
Source: Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of
Cambridge
2-D and 3-D random

3-D random fibre arrangement

Above: Chopped Strand Mat

(CSM) reinforcement. A 2-D
random arrangement of fibres
Packing arrangement

• In UD composites the volume fraction (Vf) is theoretically up

to 90%, but in practice the maximum is generally around 60%
• Cross-ply structure – layers of UD reinforcement layers
(similar Vf to normal UD composites)
• Woven materials, lower Vf due to the ‘crimp’ in the textile
structure, therefore the fibres cannot conform as easily
• CSM: Chopped Strand Mat. Lower Vf still as the fibres cannot
align as easily
• 3-D lowest since the fibres need to occupy space three
dimensionally
Long fibre textiles
• There is a large range of reinforcement types available for
manmade fibres.
• For synthetic fibre, textiles include:
– Unidirectional
– Woven
– Multi-axial
– Other/random
• See: e.g. https://www.owenscorning.com/composites/ for
further information
Principles of reinforcement
Micromechanical model: single filament/fibre
composite (SFC)
• Consider a simple, “ideal” composite (Fig. 1), consisting
of a single element of reinforcement (fibre), of finite
length, uniform geometry and having homogeneous
properties embedded in a matrix material
• Single Filament/Fibre Composites (SFC) are often used in
the study of composite micromechanics

Tensile stress

Fig. 1: Single filament composite

Load sharing
Whilst stress may vary sharply from point to point along the
fibre (particularly in short fibres), the proportion of the
external load carried by each of the individual constituents can
be assessed by volume-averaging the loads associated within
them….

DoITPoMS, University of Cambridge

Rule of Mixtures
• The volume weighted average of the properties of each
constituent comprising the composite can be used to
describe a number of material properties
• In general terms, this relationship is known as the “Rule of
Mixtures” and may be expressed as follows:

X c  V f X f  Vm X m
Xc is the composite property
Xf is the fibre property
Xm is the matrix property
Vm is the volume fraction of matrix. This is the volume of matrix in the composite as a
fraction of the total volume of the composite. Assuming that the composite consists

of two phases only (with no voids), Vm may be expressed alternatively as 1  V f 
 Load sharing

 c  V f  f  (1  V f ) m

c is the composite applied stress

f is the volume averaged fibre stress

m is the volume averaged matrix stress

Vf is the volume fraction of reinforcement. This is the volume of fibre present in the
composite as a fraction of the total volume of the composite
Reinforcement principles
• For a two phase composite, a certain proportion of the load will
be carried by the fibre and the remainder by the matrix
• The proportion of the load carried by each constituent will
depend upon the microstructural arrangement (architecture)
• The reinforcement may be considered to be acting efficiently if
it carries a relatively large proportion of the externally applied
load
• A high reinforcing efficiency can lead to greater composite
strength and stiffness, since the reinforcement is usually both
stronger and stiffer than the matrix
Reinforcement processes: elastic stress transfer
• In order for the composite to support an externally applied
load, it is a requirement that the loads are transmitted to the
reinforcement
• This is achieved through shear stresses that operate at the
interface
• Stress transfer is influenced by:
– The elastic properties (i.e. Young’s modulus) of the constituents
– The geometry and orientation (relative to the applied stress) of the
reinforcement
• A model proposed by Cox in 1952, known as the “shear-lag”
model, is often used to describe composite micromechanical
behaviour
Shear-lag model: thought experiment!

stiff reinforcement

(Source: Hull & Clyne 1996)

compliant matrix
• Distortion of compliant matrix around stiff reinforcement
• Assumes a ‘perfect’ interface – i.e. no slippage between phases
Shear-lag model
In a photoelastic model shear
stress can be visualised as the
change in optical properties

(Source: Hull & Clyne 1996)

SSMG-ITALY - Laboratory for Physical Modelling of Structures and
Photoelasticity (University of Trento, Italy)

Distortion of compliant matrix around stiff reinforcement

 Interfacial shear stresses

• Interfacial shear stress ( i ) operates at

the interface, parallel to the fibre
surface
• Using a force-balance approach it can
be shown that:
d f 2 i

dx r
Where: x is the axial distance from the fibre mid-point
r is the fibre radius
(Source: Hull & Clyne 1996)
 Variation of fibre stress along the length
• It can be shown that the axial stress distribution, due to elastic
stress transfer in a fibre, may be given by:

 f  E f  11  coshnx / r  sec hns

Ef is the fibre Young’s modulus
1 is the applied composite strain
s is the fibre aspect ratio, defined as L/r (where L is the fibre half length)
n is a dimensionless constant given by:

1
 2 Em  2

n 
  
 E f 1  vm  ln 1 V f 


Em is the matrix Young’s modulus

vm is the matrix Poisson’s ratio
Effect of aspect ratio
250 s = 100

200
fibre axial stress (MN m-2)

150 Reinforcement
aspect ratio = 5
acts more
aspect ratio = 25
aspect ratio = 100 effectively
100

50
s=5

-300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300

position along fibre (arbitary units)

Assumptions: fibre modulus: 50 GPa; matrix modulus: 3.5 GPa; axial strain: 0.5%
Experimental validation

Microdroplet test: hemp fibre embedded in epoxy

(Source: Eichhorn and Young, 2004)
Experimental validation

Axial stress along fibre, measured using Raman spectroscopy

(Source: Eichhorn and Young, 2004)
Influence of aspect ratio on axial stiffness
s=1000
160
s=100

120 s=10

Stress (MN m )
-2

80 s=5

40

0
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30
Strain (%)

• Theoretical stress-strain curves for a polymer matrix composite containing

fibres of varying aspect ratio, based on shear-lag theory
• Material parameters: fibre modulus = 50 GPa; matrix modulus = 3,5 GPa
Variation of interfacial shear stress

• It may be shown that the variation of shear stress

along the fibre can be given by:

n 1  nx 
i  E f sinh  sec h (ns)
2  r
Shear stress distribution

10
interfacial shear stress (MN m-2) aspect ratio = 5
aspect ratio = 25
aspect ratio = 100
5

-5 Stress-transfer
takes place
here
-10

-300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300

position along fibre (arbitary units)
Assumptions: fibre modulus: 50 GPa; matrix modulus: 3.5 GPa; axial strain: 0.5%
“Thus the difficulty which a thrush has in pulling a worm out of
the lawn does not depend on the length of the worm: a short
worm is just a hard to extract as a long one.”
J.E Gordon: Structures or Why Things Don’t Fall Down
“Cox-type” stress transfer

• As the aspect ratio increases, the efficiency of stress-transfer

increases to a point where a “plateau” fibre stress is reached
• For a given set of fibre and matrix properties and applied
strain, a maximum axial fibre stress and interfacial shear
stress will be attained
• As aspect ratio increases no further axial stress in the fibre
will be achieved, i.e. there is no stress transfer, except at the
end of the fibre
• So, in long fibre composites, it can be assumed that fibre and
matrix undergo equal strain, when a stress is applied parallel
to the fibre axis
Literature
• Bulota, M. and Hughes, M. (2012). Toughening mechanisms in poly(lactic) acid
reinforced with TEMPO-oxidized cellulose. J. Mater. Sci. 47: 5517-5523
• Cox, H.L. (1952). The Elasticity and Strength of Paper and Other Fibrous Materials.
Brit. J. Appl. Phys., 3: 72-79.
• de Morais, W. A. , J. R. M. d'Almeida, L. B. Godefroid (2003). Effect of the fiber
reinforcement on the low energy impact behavior of fabric reinforced resin matrix
composite materials J. Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. & Eng. 25(4)
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1678-58782003000400002)
• Eichhorn, S.J. and Young, R.J. (2004). Composite micromechanics of hemp fibres
and epoxy resin microdroplets. Composites Science and Technology 64, 767-772
• Gordon, J.E (1978). Structures or Why Things Don’t Fall Down. Penguin Books
• Hull, D. and Clyne, T.W. (1996). An Introduction to Composite Materials.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK (Chapter 2: fibres and matrix; Chapter
6: reinforcement in short fibre composites)
• Piggott, M.R. Load bearing fibre composites. Pergamon Press (Chapter 5:
reinforcement processes)